One Giant Leap

Turns out my dream was a lot closer than I thought. Last night we acheived my little slice of heaven. Ken & I sitting on the couch having a glass of wine. Kinley asleep at our feet. Hughes asleep on the back of the couch. All of us in one room, happy. I guess Kinley jumping on Hughes' head didn't affect him as much as I thought.*

*Hughes has since realized that he holds quite a bit of power in his arsenal despite being declawed. If the dog chases him, Kinley gets scolded. Hughes has learned this and has begun to use this to his advantage. He'll go up to the dog very slowly and see if he can lure the dog into getting into trouble. It's like a shootout to see who will freak out first. Closer, closer... now they're practically nose-to-nose, neither of them moving. Just staring at each other. Steady, steady, then all of the sudden one makes a quick move (usually Kinley), resulting in Hughes' crying and Kinley whimpering. Kinley gets a big "No" while Hughes has a self-satisfied cat grin and retreats to his post on top of the stairs. Repeat about 10 times a day. Slowly, Kinley has realized he can just sit there and get the cat to come to him without getting in trouble. Very sweet and calm. Well, except for the giant lick on the head that Kinley gave Hughes the other day that sent Hughes running for the stairs in disbelief... 'What the hell was that?', you could imagine him thinking.

Our house is a comedy show right now. I seriously think Hughes is a cat version of Stewie, cheeks & all.

Feel us Shaking

Turns out Portland had an earthquake this weekend. 2.8 with its epicenter at 45.523°N, 122.633°W.... meaning 31st and Burnside... meaning 4 blocks from our house. Sweet.

We didn't feel it -- we were across the river having dinner when it rumbled through. But I'm sure Kinley and Hughes loved it.

More here from the local news and USGS.

A thousand little steps

Kinley and Hughes have been slow to get to know each other. After being terrorized by Paxton many years ago, Hughes has had no interest in "getting to know" another dog anytime soon. But curiousity won the best of each of them lately and they've been slowly getting more comfortable with each other. Even touching noses a couple times yesterday (always followed by whimpering by both parties, but still.... progress). I woke up this morning by Ken telling me that our 3 steps forward were followed by 4 back. Apparently Kinley jumped on Hughes' head this morning. Time will tell what psychological damage was done to poor Hughes and how long it will be until they touch noses again. I think my dream of us all just hanging out in the living room together may be a little further off than I thought.

Fixing the Sun

In our first stained glass class, they gave us a simple pattern to make. It's a 5x4 inch scene of the sun setting over mountains with a trail. 11 pieces. We've used it to practice cutting, grinding, soldering, etc. Things went fine, but in my OCD nature to get the solder lines really smooth, I kept the soldering iron on one of the seams too long and cracked the glass. Right through the middle of the sun. I was bummed. Luckily my first big project didn't suffer the same fate. In class this week, I held up my broken sun for everyone to see. gasps from all.

Luckily, my instructor specializes in restoration and used my broken piece as an example for the rest of the class. He showed us how to remove the broken piece and prepare the void to accept a new piece of glass. I cut the glass for the new sun this morning and will get to finish the piece this weekend, thanks to my gorgeous new grinder. Ken wants to hang it on the window of his office.

Also this weekend, besides the hellebore nursery visit I've scheduled for 1pm on Saturday, I'll be cutting and grinding the glass for my second project. We're learning the lead came technique this weekend. As a fool, I chose the following pattern filled with troublesome diamonds. I predict I will be insane and/or cut to smithereens by Sunday.


Fun fact: old windows had small glass panes for two reasons. 1. large sheets of glass were difficult to make and, therefore, very expensive and rare. And 2. because they were expensive and difficult to come by, they were considered a luxury item. People were taxed based on the size of their window panes.

HMMMMMM....

....I wonder in what category Lisa and I are opposites?

Greed:	High
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	High
Sloth:	Very Low
Envy:	Medium
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Medium

I hope I bring my wrath to Dodgeball tonight

My Sweet Baby

It could be Ken. Or Kinley. Or Hughes....

but I'm talking about my beautiful new glass grinder that arrived in the mail yesterday after two patient weeks of waiting. I got the one Marsha recommended (which is also the kind we use in class). I can't wait to use it. I cut a shoebox full of glass last night in class for my second project that's just waiting to be ground.* I'm so excited to be able to do my project now on my own schedule.**

*Grinding glass is like sandpapering the edges of cut wood to make a piece of furniture. Smoothes the edges and can take off excess glass to get a piece to fit properly.

**Stained glass class has been very fun so far. It's like quilting, but with glass -- which is good since I suck at sewing. The class provides access to their tools, including grinders, but since they're only open until 6:30 on weekdays, it makes getting there after work (but before they close) to be a huge pain. And you can't quite do a project without grinding the glass. Alas, now I can do it at home on the evenings, weekends (read: whenever Kinley decides to sleep or Lisa decides she needs a break from said puppy)

I sleep a lot, really?

Greed:	Medium
Gluttony:	Medium
Wrath:	Medium
Sloth:	High
Envy:	Very Low
Lust:	Medium
Pride:	Medium

Discover Your Sins - Click Here

I would rather be a drug dealer

than be this guy. You know the he's got to be very smart. But come on, all that time and energy for a measly $63,000. I know that's alot of money but it's definitely not worth 25 years in prison. Especially since he could probably make well over that just by working 9-5 for a computer company for a year.

Puppy TV

A guy I work with said having a puppy means you'll be watching a lot of puppy TV. He wasn't kidding. It's all the time. And mostly reruns. Eating. Sleeping. Licking. Going to the bathroom. Repeat times infinity. There's good reason puppies are so cute -- they have to be in order to get two sensible, independent people to drop everything and pay attention to a 20 lb moving ball of fur and tongue. That said, when he does something good it makes your heart melt. And then there's the learning curve.

Ours.

Here's my moring that I wrote to Ken:

Kinley was very sweet. went downstairs and gave him a bit of water and then out. he peed right away. Then I put him back in his crate when I was ordering my glass grinder. He started whimpering and barking a bit. finished ordering and let him out to the kitchen while I made my coffee. he stayed mostly in the kitchen and I'd call him when he left the room. Only once did he not come back right away. I went to check on him right away -- lo & behold he was in the dining room taking a dump on the carpet. grrrr. I said no and took him out right away (but he was done by then). Back in the crate. Made my coffee. More whimpering. This time, I was sure he didn't have to go but took him outside anyway. He peed almost right away. So puppy bladder wins again. Kinley 3, Lisa 0.

Kinley's Arrival to Portland -- 11 weeks

Kinley walking towards us right after he arrived


Ken holding Kinley on the back porch


Slobber fest


Hughes checking out what the dog is doing


Kinley and Hughes meeting for the first time. Hughes figured out that Kinley can't get up the stairs. He just sits from his safe perch and watches what the dog is doing.


Sleeping under the island stool in the kitchen. Happily for me, he likes to hang out in the kitchen and watch what I'm doing


Ken waiting for Kinley to "get busy"


And he's spent

Stained Glass Project Results

My first stained glass project from afar


Close-up

Kinley

After months of waiting, the day has arrived. Ken's folks and the puppy arrive tonight at 7 (barring temperatures in Boston & Minneapolis being lower than 10 degrees, meaning the puppy isn't allowed to fly). He's 10 weeks, about 20 lbs and apparently very sweet. We've named him Kinley*.

Poor Hughes.


* The puppy was born two days after the rest of the pups in his litter. Too sleepy to get out of bed, just like me. After that, he kept sleeping like crazy. If you couldn't find him among the other pups, just check under the blankets and sure enough, there he'd be -- sleeping. Then one day, he woke up and kept eating and eating, getting bigger than all the other pups in the litter. In the meantime, we were trying to think of names (I originally wanted Kerns since I've named all my pets after where I was living at the time. But Ken vetoed the name since it was too close to his good friend Chris' last name. I was reading Backpacker one night about Alaska & Denali, where we'll be going this summer and saw Mt. McKinley... a giant, sleepy beast of a mountain. I asked Ken "how about Kinley?" It stuck. Our giant, sleepy beast of a puppy.

WANTED: New home page

I'm growing more and more tired of Yahoo as my home page when I open up my web browser. Now Yahoo has rigged it such that when you enter their site and start typing in a new web address in the address bar or any search in the Google tool bar, the cursor is automatically drawn to Yahoo's search field which inevitably, albeit artificially, increases their search hits. That's right Yahoo!, I don't want you controlling my browsing!!!!!!! You know where you can your exclamation point!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I am posing a challenge to all of you trusted readers out there. I am looking for a new home page from which to draw he latest news, sports, whatever and am taking suggestions starting right now. All suggestions will be tried out for at least a day starting tomorrow and in order of entry (unless it's something raunchy that I can't open up at work in which case I'll try it out at home ;) ).

I'll post a follow up with the results once the entries have subsided.

So let's see what you got!!!!

Glass Class, Week 2

"Pick a pattern & bring the glass for your first project. We'll be using the copper foil technique."

The whose-it-what?

I don't know what you're talking about. How do I pick a pattern? Does the glass matter? What is copper foil?

Luckily, I have Marsha who answered my many emails and even a panicked phone call last Saturday morning. Long story short, I made a pattern that will hang in our window next to the stairs. Made a small version on graph paper and blew it up using Ken's architect scale to 13x27 inches. Thank you technical drawing classes in high school. Thank you for being an architect, Ken, and having a scale. Thank you Craigslist for the drafting table we bought in Salem. OK, pattern done.

Glass. Very fun. I love buttery yellows. And rich blues. And rusty reds. And browns. Oh, but you have all of these colors in all sorts of textures... Smooth and clear. Wavy. Opaque. Aaah, totally overwhelmed. I bought a few panels on sale and brought them home for Ken to see. We held them up to the window. The buttery yellow I thought I'd use as the border looked retarded. In between football and lattes, Ken and I picked the glass that would be ice-streaked-looking clear center, the wavy goldish yellow border and the rich textured brown that will be the corners and center diamonds. I got excited and cut the pattern and glass into the pieces so I could grind the edges smooth at the next class. And then I got this from Marsha:

"Wowee! Did you cut everything first - without grinding each piece to fit? That might cause you some trouble when you go to assemble. It's best to start at a corner and work your way out to the edges, grinding each piece as you cut so you can make adjustments as you go and have no gaps. But you'll probably be fine if you cut very carefully/accurately."

Good thing this isn't my first piece and I have a ton of experience. Nuts. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. Enter daily nightmares about finishing it and my panic session to Ken about it the night before class.

Class: It ended up being totally fine. People picked some crazy patterns with lots of pieces. But I was the only one who had my glass cut. My instructor said diamonds can be very hard to fit. He was right. I started in the center and worked out since the diamonds need to be in a perfectly straight line. The clear glass away from the diamonds could be ground further to make the borders fit straight, if necessary. Turned out to be the way to go since everything ended up fitting perfectly (without any extra grinding). By the end of the night, I had all my glass ground whereas some students hadn't even picked out their glass yet. It was awesome. I got excited and foiled everything that night. Up until 2 am, but it is finished and just waiting to be soldered next weekend. It looks amazing so far though. I'll post pictures next week after it's finished.

Totally exhilirating. No wonder Marsha loves doing it so much.

Girls in Portland

In Tucson, they were begging for girls to join co-ed sports teams. I got to learn with no pressure and total encouragement. Portland is a totally different story. The ultimate frisbee league we joined when we first moved here had more girls than guys. You had to race the other girls to actually play. And they were good. I quickly lost motivation. Then today, Brian asked us to join a co-ed dodgeball league. Fun. I agreed to play, only minutes later him writing back:

"In a bizarre twist of co-ed sports fate, our chick roster is already full, but we need 1 more dude. Let me know ASAP."

Curses. Add in girls roller derby, Crafting churches, Portland assassin, etc.

I've never been in a place with so many girls -- all my age, quirky and love crafting and sports as much as I do.

Glass Class

I love it so far. It's like quilting but without the sewing. No wonder Marsha adores it so much. Time will tell if I actually 'get it'. Like I told Marsha today, "patience is not my virtue".

They're too old for this??

Good GOD, I'M too old for this!!!!!! Did anyone just see the Orange Bowl???? I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I'm surprised the 79 year old JoePa and 76 year old Bowden didn't.

Penn State 26
Florida State 23

Whew. It's 10:15pm PST.

I'm going to bed. Need to sleep on these feelings.

WE ARE..........PENN STATE!!!!!!!!

Birthday & Anniversary Celebrations

JANUARY
January Birthdays - Rachel Kinnunen (1/4), Whitney Tigani (1/4), Julie Miller (1/6), Corey Maynard (1/10), Kyle Hampton (1/28), Kim Comella (1/28)

January Weddings & Anniversaries -


FEBRUARY
February Birthdays - Rob Church (2/5), Tobriah Hale (2/17), CanErik Soreng (2/17), Stew Avenenti (2/18), Jana Church (2/21), Damani Bryant (2/21)

February Weddings & Anniversaries - Dave and Leslie Lent (2/2/08), Bob & Scrantz (2/24/81)

MARCH
March Birthdays - Max the Neigbor (3/4/5), Alice Tigani (3/16/07), Kerry Nussbaumer (3/19), Marne Pringle (3/23), Laird (3/23)

March Anniversaries - Rachel and Justin (3/8/08), Stew & Krista Avenenti (3/16/02), Meghan & Michael McCall (3/18/05)

APRIL
April Birthdays - Mo Pucillo (4/8), Andy Marriott (4/9), Justin Crable (4/11), Caroline Wilson (4/14), Sara Burke (4/24)

April Anniversaries - None


MAY
May Birthdays - Drew Mhyre (5/23), Paul Etter (5/26)

May Anniversaries - Rob and Jana Church (5/24/97)


JUNE
June Birthdays - Dana Leventhal (6/4), Jackson Powell Church (6/9), Emily Pringle (6/9), Jaden Ann Avenenti (6/13), Ken's Mom (6/20), Lisa (6/23), Taryn Jackson (6/27), Lisa's Mom (6/29), Dennis Gaffney (6/30)

June Anniversaries - Lisa's parents (6/27/70)


JULY
July Birthdays - Andrew Marriott (7/16), Misch Grill (7/21)

July Anniversaries - None that we know of


AUGUST
August Birthdays - Nate Eggers (8/9), Emily Bailen (8/16), Marsha Penner (8/21), Karl Newell (8/23)

August Anniversaries - Sara and Drew (8/11/07)


SEPTEMBER
September Birthdays - Craig Hansen (9/1), Brian Lipscomb (9/2), Randy McCall (9/11), Joe Connell (9/25), Eddie Madocks (9/30)

September Anniversaries - Whitney & Greg (9/17/05), Amy & Tom (9/23/06), Brian & Marsha (9/24/05), Us(9/25/04)


OCTOBER
October Birthdays - Dave Herman (10/3), Alyson Battistel (10/7), Brian Gaffney (10/9), Adam Galvan (10/13), Adam Sirkin (10/15), Chuck Hoeffer (10/21), Ken's! (10/27)

October Anniversaries - Courtney & Michael (10/14/06), Chuck & Dana (10/28/00)


NOVEMBER
November Birthdays - Bob Shapiro (11/12), Brian Hawkins (11/19), Dave Lent (11/26)

November Weddings & Anniversaries - Cheech & Caroline (11/19/05)


DECEMBER
December Birthdays - FanEric Marshack (12/5), Monty Avenenti (12/19), Lisa's Uncle Bill (12/20), Kristen Nelson (12/21)
December Weddings & Anniversaries - None that we know of